Knorkator
| Company type | Musical group |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Berlin , Germany |
| Products | Heavy metal music |
| Website | www |
Knorkator is a Berlin-based German group that fuses heavy metal with humor. They label themselves as "Germany’s band in the world" (), since the title "The best band in the world" was already taken by Die Ärzte. Their name originates from , an old slang term used in Berlin and the Ruhr area meaning "fantastic" or "awesome." Established in 1994, the band initially focused their performances mainly around the Berlin/Brandenburg area until 1998.
The band achieved broader fame in 2000 with their track ("I'm turning into a pig") during Germany’s national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Their unorthodox approach stirred debate, with tabloid Bild running the headline "" ("Who allowed these crazies on television?").
On 14 June 2008, Knorkator announced their disbandment, attributing it to keyboardist Alf Ator’s relocation to Thailand. Their farewell show was held on 5 December 2008 in Berlin. In autumn 2010, frontman Stumpen revealed plans for a comeback, leading to a "77 minutes tour" in April 2011 featuring precisely timed performances and appearances at major festivals like Wacken Open Air. The album ("Let there be Not") was released in September 2011, followed by an extensive tour with full-length concerts.
Style
Knorkator’s sound is mainly categorized as industrial metal, reminiscent of bands such as White Zombie and Ministry, but distinguished by a comedic edge. Their music frequently incorporates falsetto singing, grandiose anthemic choruses, heavy guitar riffs, and nuanced sampler use. Despite the humorous lyrics, the band exhibits considerable technical proficiency and artistic quality.
While most songs are performed in German, some incorporate English ("beating around the bush", "Ma Baker"), as well as Thai, Latin, or French. A prominent track, ("We're all going to die"), has been translated into Arabic language. English-language pieces often consist of extreme reinterpretations of popular songs.
The track was included as a music video segment in the third episode of Adult Swim’s Off the Air (2011).
Live performances
Knorkator is renowned for their theatrical and chaotic stage shows. Frontman Stumpen frequently appears scantily clad, while Buzz Dee sports a look similar to Big Jim Martin.
Their concerts are characterized by wild antics: Alf Ator engages the audience by striking them with foam clubs, tossing bread and leaves into the crowd, and operating a modified shredder that disperses shredded fruits and vegetables—referred to as "vegetarian airway-catering." Instrument destruction is a staple, particularly Alf Ator dismantling electronic organs using unconventional tools. Stumpen regularly smashes television sets during shows; on one occasion, he suffered a glass injury requiring surgery, with the glass shard later sold at auction. Earlier performances included destroying furniture with axes or baseball bats.
Audience participation plays a vital role in their live acts, including band members crowd surfing and orchestrated crowd activities such as hand racing duels, piggyback moshing, contests involving throwing women into the air, the Wall of Death, and lifting their overweight sound engineer from the mixing console onto the stage and back again.
Members
- Stumpen (Gero Ivers) – lead vocals
- Alf Ator (Alexander Thomas) – keyboardist
- Buzz Dee (Sebastian Baur) – guitarist (since 1996)
- Rajko Gohlke – bassist (from 2010 onward)
- Philipp Schwab – drummer (starting 2020)
Previous Members
- J. Kirk Thiele – guitar (up to 1997)
- Thomas Görsch – drums (until 1998)
- Chrish Chrash (Christian Gerlach) – drums (1998 to 2003)
- Tim Buktu (Tim Schallenberg) – bass guitar (2003–2008)
- Sebhead Emm (Sebastian Meyer) – drums (2012–2014)
- Nick Aragua (Nicolaj Gogow) – drums (2003–2012, 2014–2020)
Touring Musicians
- Jen Majura – guitar (2012–2014)
- Philipp Schwab – drums (2014–2015)
Studio Albums
- 1998: (The baddest of Knorkator)
- 1999: (wordplay on Hasenscharte and hit record)
- 2000: (A tribute to ourselves)
- 2003: (I despise music)
- 2007: (The next album of all time)
- 2011: (Let there be not / pun on Let there be light)
- 2014: (We want Moore)
- 2016: (I am the Boss)
- 2019: (Resistance is futile)
- 2022: (Victory of reason)
- 2025: (World domination for all)
Live Albums
- 2005: (Too old)
- 2015:
Compilations
- 2002: (Home songs – Songs from [our] homeland)
- 2010: (Limited edition, three-CD box set)
DVDs
- 2005:
- 2007: (Bonus DVD included with Das nächste Album aller Zeiten)
- 2008:
- 2011: (Bonus DVD accompanying Es werde Nicht)
- 2014: (Bonus DVD with We Want Mohr)
- 2015:
- 2016: (Bonus DVD for Ich bin der Boss)
Singles / EPs
- 1995:
- From 1998 to 2008: Various singles including Böse, Weg nach unten, Der ultimative Mann, and Kinderlied
We Want Mohr controversy
In early spring of 2014, Knorkator announced a tour supporting their album , which had been released on January 17, that year. The album’s title plays on the word "more," substituting it with the German term , an outdated expression for black individuals now primarily found in historical or literary settings. The promotional poster portrayed the five white band members inside a large cooking pot over flames, alongside a black figure adorned with bones in their hair and holding a knife—recreating an image from a children's book dating back to the nineteenth century.
This visual provoked backlash from German anti-racist platforms and the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland, who condemned the poster as racist and offensive. Gero Ivers, the band's frontman, expressed regret over the misunderstanding and emphasized that the poster's meaning was misinterpreted when taken out of context. Although the band discontinued use of the poster, they refused to alter the album cover art, defending their reenactment as fundamentally anti-racist.
Bibliography
- Knorkator, Des Wurzels Zweig, June 2002, Eulenspiegel-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-359-01448-5
- Knorkator, Am Anfang war das Am, 2004, Eulenspiegel-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-359-01609-0
- Alf Ator, Die satanischen Achillesferse, March 15, 2008, Eulenspiegel-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-359-02200-8
- Alf Ator, The Best of fast allen Comics, 2011, Eulenspiegel-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-359-02316-6
- Alf Ator, The noch Besteren of Alf Ator, COMICS, 2015, Eulenspiegel-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-359-02460-6